The Little Tiny Dragon
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: There's nothing better than making up songs to sing with your most favorite little baby demon/dragon ever. Literally nothing. - Miraxus Week Day 7: Lullaby. One-shot, part of the Last Month series.


The Little Tiny Dragon

As much as Laxus loved Lana when she was tiny and a little baby and just so great and amazing, she, as he was finding out, was like a fine wine. Better with age. Even a short amount.

At all of seventeen months, she was hands down his favorite person to be around. They spent every day together, practically. Well, when he wasn't out on a job or having to do extensive training, of course. He was always sure to make those days up to her though by spending extra special time with her when he got back. You know, rubbing her tummy and letting her sleep on his chest. Some of her favorite things.

If there was one thing that Lana really liked though, it was mimicking him. His speech, anyways. She didn't know very many words, but babbling along with whatever he said was definitely a fun exercise for her. It was, however, very tedious for Laxus when he was trying to talk to Mirajane and there was Lana with all her nonsensical noises, attempting to help him along. So he had to come up with ways to tire her out from it and, well, the best way he knew was telling her stories. But even those grew old eventually, so he went to the only other place that he knew.

Music.

Mirajane, of course, was the source of most of Lana's musical knowledge. What with her guitar and singing abilities, she taught the little girl many songs to sing (or at least attempt to) when she was bored. There was nothing that Lana loved more than when Mirajane would sit down with her and sing to her, allowing her to try her hardest to sing along. It was really cute to Laxus for the most part, but sometimes, well, he just felt a tad jealous.

As vast and infinite as his musical library seemed, Laxus didn't know nearly as many songs for children as he'd always assumed he did. He knew the basic, but Lana could only listen about so many twinkling stars and row so many boats before she just completely lost interest him. Oh and that lamb. That dang lamb.

Of all the things that Laxus was great at with his daughter, that just wasn't one of them. So he'd sing her the songs that he learned from Mirajane and let her mimicking him in that way. But it just felt...meh. He wanted them to have a special song between them, like she and Mirajane had. It was greedy, of course, considering he and Lana had such a deeper connection than her and Mirajane to begin with, but he didn't care. He wanted more.

He'd always want more.

It wasn't until recently that Laxus found a solution to this. Namely, he was able to come up with a song for him and Lana.

The song came to him (or back to him, rather) one night as they laid around in him and Mirajane's bed. Lana had been fighting an upset tummy all day and was finally feeling a bit better. The only problem with that was that she'd slept most of the morning and afternoon hours away, leaving her very alert and awake then. You know, when Laxus was more than ready to fall asleep.

"Hatchling," he complained as Lana continued to babble insistently. "Baby dragon. Tiny, little, baby dragon-demon. I'm trying to sleep. Aren't you sleepy?"

Ha. No. Lana's tummy was feeling great and so was she. Sleep was the furthest thing from her mind.

Groaning, Laxus rolled onto his side to stare down at her. She'd begun clapping her hands together, in time with her babbles and, well, it was about time that Laxus put an end to it all.

"Hey," he said, voice absolute. It made the little girl look up at him. "You behave. Daddy means it. It's night time. Go to sleep time. Alright?"

How about no? Lana went back to clapping. Frowning, Laxus reached over to gently tap her on the head.

"Lana," he said, making her glance up at him once more. "You want Daddy to tell you a story? Huh? Is that what you want? Then will you go to sleep? Hmmm?"

She made no promises, but story time sounded grand.

So Laxus launched into one of his usual tales of bravado, full of his overall awesomeness mixed in with the under-appreciation he got for such great feats that he pulled off on, oh, nearly a _daily_ basis. And Lana only laid there, next to him, mimicking his words when she felt the need, but otherwise just listening to her father's voice. It was very soothing.

Another problem that Laxus reached, however, quite frequently with Lana was that...well… Even though it was quite the shocking statement, he actually didn't have endless stories about himself to share. He had a high number and was able to twist many others that weren't so glamorous into tales of grander, but still; eventually everything comes to an end. And that night, after he finished, oh, four, he couldn't think of another.

Huh.

It had to do with his need for sleep, of course, partly. He really wanted to drift off and his mind was mush and, well, Lana just wasn't playing along. At all.

"Dede?" She frowned when he stopped talking. "S'ory."

"I'm thinking," he assured her, staring up at the ceiling in contemplation. Hmmm. All he was coming up with were stories that he'd bragged up to her recently and, well, he'd more tired of telling them than anything else (the girl would listen to him repeat the same story for hours, honestly). He wanted something else. Something different.

Out of pure exhaustion, he finally just decided that, if he couldn't come up with a song, then he'd make one up. Taking a breath and a thought, he began.

"Once there was a little tiny dragon," he sang softly as the baby giggled, just from the sound. Shifting on the bed, he moved to lean down and nuzzle his head against hers. "He could never be beat in any way."

Always one to love the sound of her father singing (it was actually horribly off-key, even in a song he'd just made up), Lana made a few loud noises before patting at his face. She sure loved her daddy.

"He'd always fight and win and eat and sleep and play."

Lana liked the song already. It sounded great. It had dragons and playing and Laxus singing. Mmmm. She loved it.

"But each and every night he'd go," he went on, "home back to his cave alone and...uh…be sad."

Laxus was still nuzzling against her head as he thought and Lana was more than enjoying herself. Wasn't the tad bit sleepy, but whatever. Entertained all the same.

"You know why he was sad, Lana?" Laxus asked. Quite honestly, all she knew was that she loved him and the song and that she was super glad her tummy ache had disappeared.

"Because he was so very, very lonely," Laxus sang. "All by himself without a friend."

Yeah, Laxus was kinda running out of things to sing about the dragon. He'd started with a purpose, of course, in having the dragon meet a friend, but he wasn't certain how to get there. Hmmm.

Abandoning that idea, he went on.

"He'd watch the sun go down alone and watch the moon rise on his own until one day he felt a cold chill." He breathed in before softly singing, "There beside him on the cliff sat something, he just caught a whiff of the thing he couldn't see."

Lana turned away from Laxus then, tired of his nuzzles, though she did keep her head tilted back to stare up at him with a wide grin. She tried to repeat his last line back to him, but was getting all jumbled up.

Talking was hard.

"Even if he didn't know it," Laxus went on, "there was someone right there to show him he wasn't all alone."

And she fell over then with giggles as Laxus lifted his head up, grinning just as widely down at her. Lana only held up her hands until Laxus shifted again, so that he could grab them, squeezing just slightly.

"Because," he told her as he leered over her, "demon's always watch over dragons. And this demon's watching over this dragon. Even if he cannot see. And Lana, stop biting me!"

No! Not until he let go of her hands!

He was busy dealing with that when, suddenly, a voice spoke from the hallway.

"That was definitely cute," he heard his wife say as she walked into the bedroom, carrying a stack of folded laundry. "But not at all the lyrics."

"What are you talking about?" Laxus complained as Lana's head shot up at the sound of her mother's voice. "Mirajane?"

"The song," she said, going to put the clothes away in the dresser drawer. "Those aren't the lyrics."

"Of course they are," he said, letting Lana go. She only moved to attack him some more though, thinking for some reason that him grabbing her hands was a sign that he wanted to play. "I just made it up."

"I don't think so, dragon."

"Mira, I would know. I made up-"

"The words, fine, but that tune?" She shook her head. "That's an old nursery rhyme."

"Is not."

"Is so." When she finished with the clothes, she headed over to the bed to claim her spot. "My mother used to sing it to us when we were young."

Lana, finished with her father, turned to clamber into her mother's lap. "D'agon."

"Daddy did sing to you about a dragon, didn't he?" Mirajane snuggled her a bit and the white haired child only giggled. "He's a good daddy."

Yeah. She knew. He was pretty much the best.

"It's a real song though?" Laxus asked, more stuck on that than being bragged about. When the Thunder Legion did it, he enjoyed it. But his wife and daughter just made him feel awkward. Like it was so rare they had to point it out or something. "Mirajane?"

"Of course, dragon," she said, glancing up at him. "I thought that was why you sang it. Just mocking it or whatever."

"No."

"Oh." She shrugged then. "Maybe it was just, like, stuck in the back of your mind or something? Maybe Master used to sing it to you or something."

But that wasn't right. And, with a frown, Laxus asked, "Do you know the words? The real ones, I mean?"

"Mmmm… Maybe. Let me think."

While she did that, Lana took it upon herself to climb right back out of Mira's lap and go bother Laxus some. He was paying _far_ too much attention to her mother in that moment and, to remedy this, Lana took to patting and prodding at him until he snuggled with her.

She was not one to be ignored.

Or to share. Laxus. With Mira. And vice versa.

Heh.

"Uh," Mira was trying then before humming the tune a bit. "It was something about a witch or something that… She's trying to make a potion or something and it goes wrong and-"

"And she makes a man," Laxus whispered softly. As he was laying on his side, Lana was able to reach his face and was taking the time out to pull at his nose, but he was too lost in himself to care. "I remember."

Nodding, his wife said, "And witches always make the perfect brew. And this witch made the perfect brew." Then, with a grin, she said, "But there's a second versus about the man leaving her and her being alone, but then the next time she makes a potion, it casts a spell on the man or something. Because witches always make the perfect brew and, wow, this song is not at all something I would ever sing to Lana. Maybe my parents didn't love me."

She was expecting a look or something from her husband, but he only shook his head slightly.

As in his near stupor at that point (seriously, he'd been up all the night before and day dealing with baby vomit; he needed some rest), Laxus' mind must have started to drift some. On occasion he would tell Lana stories of times past. Like before he was with Mirajane or when they first started dating. Only, his mind must have went further behind that for some reason, to a place he never talked about.

When he was a kid.

It just hit him too, out of nowhere. This stupid, silly old tune that had popped into his brain. He tried hard to recall the lyrics, but they were dead to him and gone and his mother's voice was humming then, in his head, along with the song, but no words came. The only ones he could think of were the ones that he had made up before, about the dragon and the demon.

"It was my mother."

"Oh, Lax, it was a joke. Both our parents loved us...just mine a tad more."

"No." At that, he looked over at her, Lana releasing his nose so that she could take to snuggling up to his chest. "That sang that to me. I remember now. It was her."

For A moment, Mirajane was silent before slowly saying, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said any-"

"No," he repeated, though that time he was shaking his head at her. "I'm glad you did. It must have been...subconscious, huh? It's such a distinct melody and I've been trying, like, forever to think of something to sing to Lana that would just be between us- And Lana, I mean it, No biting."

No fair. He was the one that wasn't paying attention to her. What kinda Daddy Dragon was he being, huh?

"You listen to him, Lana," Mira said, frowning down at her as well. "You've been doing that too much recently."

Bah. Sitting back on her butt, she whined a bit until Laxus patted her on the head, though he continued speaking to her mother.

"I just think that it's… I don't know," he sighed as Mira stared at him, blue eyes sympathetic. For the two of them to have both lost their parents, the ways couldn't be further apart. Hers were taken away with her knowing the entire time just how much they loved her while his willingly left with little love to give. It kinda made it hard for Mira at times, to feel any self-pity over the entire thing. "Like a… Sign or-"

"A sign for what, Lax?"

"I don't know, Mira. I'm not too good at this kinda stuff."

"Well you're good at taking care of Lana."

"Mirajane-"

"You are," she kept up. "So if you're about to make some sort of reference to how your parents… How they abandoned you… Just don't. Because you're completely separate from-"

"I didn't mean a direct sign," he grumbled. "I'd never do that."

"I know."

"I just meant… I'm… That it's a good thing," he said, clearly confused by the whole thing. "Because I did love her, Mirajane. Even though she left I never-"

"I know. It's okay."

Glancing down at Lana once more, who was more than enjoying his pats on the head, he had to smile. Because she was and, well, he could hardly contain his joy when he was around her.

"I feel bad sometimes," he told Mirajane then. "That we don't have anyone for her."

"Anyone?"

"Like… Our parents are all dead. And we don't really have any family outside of Gramps and your siblings. She's not going to get to have some big, huge family that-"

"I grew up with only my siblings, Lax," Mirajane told him. "And my parents. I never felt left out of anything because they loved me so much. And Lana has me and you and Master and Lisanna and Elf and the Thunder Legion too, right?"

"I guess so."

"Then see? She's already doubled what I had." Reaching out, Mirajane gently stroked her baby's cheek. "And I think she's already much more happier than either of us ever were. Or that any baby ever has been."

"She does seem particularly happy," Laxus agreed, watching as Lana nuzzled back into her mother's touch. "But I think that's just the little bit of you she's got in her."

"Little bit?"

"Well, most of her's me. You can just tell."

"How?"

"You just can, Mira."

Giving him a look, she said, "Careful, dragon. Because this demon is about to vacate and leave you all alone to watch that moon rise."

He frowned. "How much of that were you eavesdroppin' on, woman?"

"Enough."

Grunt. Then, "Well, that's me and Lana's song now so you keep your filthy demon claws out of it. You hear me?"

"Loud and clear."

Falling onto his back, Laxus stared up at the ceiling for a moment before saying, "It's their loss, you know."

"Hmmm?"

"My parents. That they don't get this. That they don't get Lana. It's not her loss. She's not missing anything. You were right. She has a billion other people that beat them out every single time. They have no one even close to her. That's on them. They missed out. Big time."

"Mmmm." Slowly and even though she wasn't really ready for bed yet, Mirajane stretched out with the two of them, smiling across the bed at her husband. She knew that there was no getting Lana into her own bed then, as when she was sick (or cranky or whiny or anything else that he could dream up) Laxus wanted her close. "They missed out twice."

"Huh?"

"On you too, Lax," she explained. "They missed out on you first and, by proxy, Lana. Not the other way around. You were important too. You _are_ important." Then, with a grin, she added, "Daddy Dragon."

Another grunt. "I am pretty awesome."

"Pretty."

"P'etty," Lana repeated as Laxus groaned, knowing that they were about to get right back to that. "Ow'em."

"You ready to sing again, little tiny baby dragon? Huh?" Laxus reached over to gently pick her up before setting her on his chest. "You ready? Huh? Once there was a little tiny dragon..."

* * *

 **Was definitely my favorite to write for the week, but then again, I'm a sucker for Laxus and Lana. I might get around to the bonus day prompts (I wanted to do a Remember Me series one-shot for the week, but we'll see) or I might not. Either way, Miraxus Week's been great and you should definitely check out some of the artwork that people have been doing for it.**


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